Turtles Forever: The Same as They Never Were
by Longing for Leo
Summary: Story explores what would happen if Leo was separated from his bros during the portal transmission and his brothers thought he might have been separated into non-existence. Ch 2 looks at what Raph would do with the unexpectedly open leadership position.
1. Ch 1: Back to the Future: Leonardo

Turtles Forever: The Same as They Never Were

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Just a little Plot Bunny that hopped into my head after watching the new crossover flick on 4Kids last month. I don't get those often so I thought I'd go with it. As always, I claim no ownership of anything from the different TMNT universes that this story is based on.

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*Spoiler Alert* If you haven't seen Turtles Forever or Same as it Never Was you're going to want to stop right here and go watch them, because they're awesome and this story won't make **any sense** if you haven't. Ok…and the Plot Bunny is off!

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What if one of the turtles got separated when Donatello (1987) used the Trans-Dimensional Portal Stick to get both teams/families out of the collapsing lair or when Karai transported them out of the Technodrome centrifuge? What if it was their leader? If Leo (2003) didn't show up in the 1987 universe or fallen on top of Casey in the crater left in the street by the Technodrome's weight, if his brothers couldn't find him or get to him, and if they thought he might have been crushed or separated into non-existence…what would they do? Would they go on with trying to find the Technodrome, save Turtle Prime, and destroy the Shredder? Or would they stop at nothing to find a lost brother who might be hurt, dead, …or nonexistent?

And what might have drawn Leo to that dark dimension, the dystopian future, which would not have called to Donny? What happened after Donny left that dark place? What if one of his brother's counterparts got up from that fight discovering the rest of his family dead at his feet and himself alone? If he cried, called, and screamed for a brother "loud" enough, could it draw that brother's counterpart from one destination of trans-dimensional travel to another?

What if Leo and that brother-counterpart fought together in that alternate dimension, becoming friends and brothers, fixing a world with very little good left in it, finding love, and bringing this brother back to his own world? Would he, could he live in a bright world after so much dark? Could he ever forgive himself for his greatest mistake? If anyone could help him do it, it would be Leo. If they survive long enough, if they get back to Turtle Prime and save their original counterparts in time...

This is the "what if" crossover story describing just that, bringing the events of the Turtles Forever movie into the Same as it Never Was dimension, and the characters from that dimension back into the Turtles Forever plotline. Enjoy.

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Chapter 1: Back to the Future

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Leonardo

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New York City, 2009

Eight figures spun around and around a bright metal chamber, screaming in pain as the centrifugal force tore them apart, their master and father screaming along with them in horror and grief and their enemy screaming in triumph as they disappeared into nonexistence.

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I heard my brothers, both my dimension's and the others, screaming around me in pain and terror as we were hurled around and around the Shredder's centrifuge, feeling myself coming apart at the seams and knowing that my brothers were being torn apart as well…and I could do nothing, absolutely nothing about it. Their screams tore at me worse than the centrifugal force, assaulting my very soul in the utter wrongness of the experience. How could it end this way? We hadn't even had a chance for a last look, let alone telling each other how much we care—love—each other. I couldn't even make eye contact to show them I was here, to try to comfort them. I was going to hear their deaths and then die along with them, leaving Master Splinter alone to who-knows-what fate, as my last experience in life. Well, at least we were going down together. I know I couldn't live without my brothers.

The screaming and the pain intensified at the same time as the light exposure of the room intensified to a blinding white. I could feel myself pulled along with my brothers into that white light and I was sure that this was death. The screaming peaked, and in the midst of that screaming, clear as a bell, I heard one of my brothers scream for me, echoing across the whiteness around me.

_**LEOOOOOO!!!**_

My name, but filled with such emotional pain, with a pleading terror that made clear a need so strong that it was pure instinct, only natural, to turn towards the brother who called for me in such a way, even in death. As I turned I could feel a different sort of separation happening as I realized—to late—that my turn took me away from the brothers around me. Before I could possibly understand what was happening I felt my body reforming as I landed in a heap in a much darker place.

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Unknown Dimension, 2035

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"**LEOOOOOO!!!**"

As my name echoed around me in the darkness, so strikingly different from the bright white I had been in, it took me a moment for my eyes to adjust, and many more to understand what I was seeing.

Raph, or at least, an older, one-eyed, scarred version of my brother Raph, was crouched on his hands and knees over a much older, scarred, bloody, and very pale version of me. Raph's face was twisted in pain, distorted by his sobs and scream, disbelief and denial curdling with grief and despair as he drew—me—to himself. My counterpart's mouth was agape, blood trickling from the corner and down his cheek, his head flopped limply to the side as Raph wrapped an arm behind his neck and lifted him into an almost sitting position leaning against Raph's plastron and supported only by Raph's arm. It was clear to me that my older counterpart's string had been cut, that he was gone, even before Raph brought his other hand up shakily to feel his clammy and pale throat, checking for a pulse that was not there. Raph froze for a second, his shoulders stiffening, and then shaking violently with the turmoil of emotions going on inside of him. He wrapped this arm too around his Leo's body and held him tightly to his own, embracing him like he hadn't in decades and burying his face in Leo's rapidly chilling neck, sobbing his heart out and calling for him.

"Leo! LEO!!! NOOO!!!"

My face felt frozen as I took in the scene before me: older, injured versions of Raph, myself, and…I looked around and saw a bloody, one-armed green figure off to the side a bit…Mikey. I stood shakily.

"_You're alive! And Mikey, you have both arms!"_

I remembered what Donny said, the brief synopsis we got out of our brother after the whole Draco/Damio's son episode was resolved. Donny hadn't wanted to relive it, sharing only that he had met and spent time with our older and completely worn-down-by-life counterparts, lead them into battle in a dystopian future world ruled by the Shredder, and watched them die. First Mikey, all alone and calling for Donny, then myself stabbed in the back by Karai, and then Raph in his attempt at vengeance for me. Donny had shared that after his chest was sliced open Raph crawled towards my counterpart, his Leo, calling for him and finally collapsing just short, his hand flung out and just managing to touch my—err—Leo's own. Raph looked like he had just gotten up from that position when I first arrived.

I turned to see Karai in a mangled heap, her silver hair crusted in her own blood, face down in the dirt, the exosuit Donny had told us about chained to Shredder's, and April, wasted looking, standing off to the side and looking brokenheartedly at the dead turtles before her, and the empty space beside her where Donny must have just disappeared from. I knew where I was, I knew _when_ I was, and after seeing Shredder's little slideshow presentation I understood _what_ it was: an alternate dimension, like the 1987 version, only different in so many ways. I was in the alternate future that Donny described, somehow, drawn in by Raph's scream.

April, hearing Raph's scream and realizing that he needed her to snap out of it and be the leader of the resistance that the last 30 years had made her into, ran to him, shouting orders at her men to check Mikey, knowing that it was hopeless, and bring a medic for Raph. She collapsed to her knees beside him, placing a scarred and calloused, but still warm and comforting, hand on his shoulder.

"Raph," she said softly. "Raph look at me. We need to sew up that gash or you'll bleed out." A medic approached and started opening her bags, withdrawing needles, thread, antiseptic, and gauze. Raph would not let his Leo's body go.

"Good," Raph replied gruffly, I could tell his voice was distorted by more than just time. I had never seen my brother in such pain. "Don's gone, Splinter, Casey, and now Leo's—dead—" he choked, "and Mikey is too, right?" His sob ended with a growl. "I have nothing left, no reason, absolutely no reason, to stay in this hell-hole any longer. It's over."

"Raph please, let us help you! You still have Angel, you know it would just kill her if she knew you gave up like this, and…me. Please Raph, let go of Leo." April begged.

"No," he replied gruffly, dangerously, holding my counterpart's body closer to himself, blood from his wound squeezing out from where he pressed Leo's body against it. I stared on in horror, knowing I had to act to save my brother, but my body wasn't cooperating. I watched as the bloody body of my lighthearted little brother, my sun—or at least, his counterpart, was zipped up in a body bag. I watched as Karai's body was kicked into one as well. I looked back into Raph's rapidly paling face and saw that he meant to die here with his brothers.

"You need blood. Please Raph, please don't give up! We still need you…" April begged, crying now. I could tell, somehow, that it was something that she hadn't done in a very long time, since Casey's death, I surmised, that something had broken inside her at the thought of loosing him too, that Raph was all that she had left from a happier time, her brother, that she could see that he was giving up and that she really didn't have anything to offer him that would make him stay.

Raph laughed, a startling, gruff sound twisted by grief and pain. "From who?" I knew what he meant, what he was laughing so bitterly at. The brother whose body he was holding, whose blood had already been spilled and was now cooling and congealing within his veins, was the only one he thought was compatible to him. "No April, just let me go." Raph trailed off, burying his face in his Leo's cold neck again. "I want to," He added, tears leaking from beneath his mask again. That was too much.

"No." I had spoken without even realizing it, was standing in a defensive position, taking a step towards my brother and firmly stating: "I won't let you." And I couldn't. How could I let him? Even knowing that I would feel the same way if our places had been reversed, I couldn't stand by and let it happen.

Raph stiffened, his breath caught in his throat, obviously thinking that there had been some miracle he lifted his head from his Leo's neck and turned to look into his still face.

"Le—eo?" His voice broke and my heart broke along with it as I heard the little brother within, so scared. Meek and almost afraid to hope. I saw his face darken with the disappointment but then transform in confusion as he looked up and towards the source of the sound, at me. They all stared at me.

"Yes." I replied simply, what else could I say? I figured an explanation was in order. "I'm Leo too. Don's Leo. My Don, that is. The one who just disappeared," I gestured towards the spot where April had been standing, where Donny must have just disappeared from, taking a step closer to Raph and April. "He got back safely, years ago, told us about what happened here. He thought you were dead though, Raph. Our dimension's Shredder sent me here, by accident, I think. He meant to kill me. I'm worried about my brothers but—" here I stumbled—"you're my brother too Raph, and I won't let you die, not when I can save you." I stood beside them now, crouching to place my hand on Raph's shoulder. The touch seemed to affect him more even than my words.

"Leo…" I could see it was all way too much for him, especially after so much blood loss, after the shock of seeing his brothers die. He passed out. Perhaps it would be easier this way, easier to explain everything with him healing up in a bed and with the dead me in another room, rather than clutched tightly in his arms. I gently caught him as he started to fall, lowering him to the ground and lifting my dead counterpart off of him. I tried not to look at the wasted version of me but couldn't completely control the shudder that touching the body elicited.

"April, I'm sorry if this is all too much of a shock for you too, but we have to act quickly to save him. I won't let him die." I saw her face harden in resolve and she nodded.

"Neither will I. Medic, men!" She shouted, gesturing to the medic to begin sewing up Raph's wound and the rest of them to pick up their Leo's body and help them get all of their wounded out. I noticed how carefully they placed my counterpart's body in the bag, almost reverentially cradling his head as they slid him in, zipped the bag up, and lifted his body into the air. It was respect I saw. I shuddered again, having to tear myself away from the disturbing scene and back to the figures around me. The medic had Raph's wound cleaned and nearly sewn up, and it seemed clear that she had worked on this dimension's versions of my family before. Wrapping gauze and a bandage around the wound she gestured to an assistant to get the blood transfusion equipment prepped, then turned to me.

"Are you sure you're compatible?" She asked flatly. I nodded, how could this Raph's blood type be different? He had the same skin color. He looked just like my Raph would after enduring 30 years of warfare.

"Yes." I stated simply. She nodded back and swiftly plunged the needle into my arm, withdrawing enough to make me woozy. I didn't complain, this was my brother, after all. Or at least, one version of him.

_And_, I shuddered to think it, _he might be the only version I have left_. In the shock of the things going on in my immediate surroundings I hadn't allowed myself to think about my brothers' fates until this moment. We were supposed to be dead, more than that, nonexistent. Something clearly went wrong with my separation, but my brothers weren't here. I couldn't help but despair that they weren't anywhere anymore. I hadn't given up on them, oh no, I wouldn't give up hope until I found out what happened, until I found them, alive or—I couldn't think that yet. They had to be ok. I could _feel_ it. I would know if they were gone. They must have been transported to some other dimension, much like what happened when Draco/the Damio's son separated us and sent us all to different spaces and times. I would find them, _no matter what_. But for now I couldn't help them, so I was going to do everything possible for the brother I _could_ help.

As soon as the needle was in Raph's arm and my blood started trickling into his veins we transported him into a van and out of there. On the way I held his hand, staring at the lines in his face and the missing eye in anger at the universe for doing this to him, for leaving him alone. I talked to April as well, asking questions about the events of the last 30 years that Donny had skimmed over, trying to determine where this universe branched off from my own. It was before the Draco/Damio's son incident, that much was clear. It seemed like this universe was created from the possibility that Shredder's exodus had been successful, as if we hadn't even known about it, but April was also a little skimpy on the details.

I asked her about the fight between this universe's Raph and Leo, almost afraid to know the details. She bit her lip, clearly not wanting to tell me how bad it was but assuring me that they made up after my Donny showed up and that it was clear to her, even after decades of fighting and avoiding one another, that they still cared about each other the whole time.

"Angel could tell you stories…" she began, a small smile lit her face but turned quickly to a grimace. "They were so stupid," she shook her head angrily. "Twenty years wasted, and it turned out they still loved each other in the end. They could have had years together, but no, they got hours…Poor Angel…loosing Leo's going to kill her—no," April corrected herself, "loosing Leo _and Raph_ would have killed her" April finished darkly. I could tell that there was much more to this issue than April was telling me.

We arrived and gently carried Raph and the bags containing his brothers' bodies into their headquarters. I stayed close by his side, not really taking in the underground bunker around us. They led us into a white hospital room bisected by a curtain. Raph was placed on a bed on one side, and his brothers were gently taken out of their bags, placed on tables, and covered by white sheets on the other. I realized in horror that that side must be the morgue.

When I looked around at April I could see that she was crying silently again, saying goodbye with her eyes to the covered forms of her brothers, my brothers. After a moment she composed herself and her face hardened again into an April I didn't know. She said something to the underlings around her but I wasn't really listening. I heard something about finding Angel and having a lot to do now that Shredder was gone, needing to take this opportunity before his forces regrouped and I stopped listening. I couldn't be a leader today, or a warrior or a ninja. Today, right now, I could only be a brother.

I drew up a chair beside Raph's bed and took his hand. Apparently I was all Raph had in the world, and he might be all that I had as well, so I would not leave his side. I could not leave his side. I could see April watching me but I did not look at her. I had eyes only for his wasted face. The face that, despite the missing eye, the scars, and the deep-set lines, nevertheless looked more like my Raph's face in unconsciousness than it had in waking. It made me ache for my brother, for all of them, but my helplessness was total and kept me grounded at his side.

I talked to him while my blood replaced his, seeing some color coming back into his chalky complexion, still holding his hand. I told him stories of when we were young, adventures we had had together, laughter and mischief and happiness, not knowing if any of it had actually happened to him and his Leo, or if it even mattered. I became aware that I was crying and was not sure how long it had been going on, shaking and trying my best to suppress the sobs, loosing the battle for control. I buried my face in my arms on the side of his mattress and cried for him, for my brothers…and for his.

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So, what did you all think? Obviously I got this idea after watching the new crossover movie, Turtles Forever, so if you haven't seen that (or SaiNW if you were living under a rock for the last four years) then you're going to want to before continuing this story. If I may say so myself, it's an awesome movie, absolutely spectacular to get to see the different turtle groups interacting. And for that matter, as I'm sure many of you agree, SaiNW is the best episode ever. With access to a "Trans-Dimensional Portal Stick" how could I **not** have our heroes off exploring other universes? Exactly, I couldn't. Not when they even showed the turtles from the SaiNW universe to our boys. No way.

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Oh, & PS? It really bothered me that Hun found and destroyed their lair. Seriously? Another home destroyed? No, that's stupid. I don't want to have to explain it away or find them a new lair in my story, so I'm just going to pretend that it was just some random sewer tunnel that collapsed and separated them from Splinter and that the pump station lair is ok. If it was up to me they'd still be in the Elintian one, but I couldn't make that fly at all. Yes, I know it's a cop out. I know it's a plot hole. Whatever, my story, my rules. Also, you'll have to excuse the obvious differences in time elapsed in each dimension. For some reason the time goes slower in the Future dimension…yes, even though it's in the _future_, suggesting that time should be moving faster in that dimension to be that much farther ahead. I know, major plot hole. Just accept it. We're working with theoretical concepts here; I think I'm aloud to be a little shady with time and space.

Anyway, give me a review, yell at me for the plot holes, praise me for the idea, suggest things, whatever you want, just as long as I get the feeling people are reading it and interested in reading more. Thanks!


	2. Ch 2: A Leader Short: Raphael

Hello fellow turtle fans! I'm happy to see that this plot bunny has received such a warm response. Nine reviews so far, not bad at all. :) So, I've decided to continue the thing. This chapter shows what happened to the others (what really happened in the show) from Raph's perspective. Since I'm trying to keep to the plot of the movie whenever possible I'll be copying quite a few quotes from it in this one. Please note that I claim no ownership, etc. of those lines. Note that I use the nicknames for our 2003 turtles and the full names for their 1987 counterparts. Enjoy!

Chapter 2: A Leader Short

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Raphael

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New York City, 2009

Nearly 30 years earlier, seven figures burst out of non-existence and fell in a heap on a bluish-black haired man in a crater in a New York City intersection.

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_Oww_. I groaned as I lifted myself up from where I lay in the compressed bedrock next to Casey. He seemed pretty excited to see us.

"Guys! You're alive!" April cried out, relieved. Apparently he and April had been sure we had imploded with the Technodrome thing, which, by the way, had in no way imploded. My head sure felt like it had though, and as Casey grabbed me up in a relieved hug I couldn't help but wince a little.

_Is everyone ok_, I thought, looking around to check on the state of my brothers and our counterparts as they groaned around me.

"Uh dudes, like what just happened?" Michelangelo began shakily.

"Yeah, shouldn't we be like, nonexistent right about now?" Mikey finished, confused. I wondered the same thing: _why weren't we? What had saved us? _as April ran over to Mikey and hugged him.

"Mikey!" April cried with relief, then suddenly realizing that there were two Mikeys, added: "…and Mikey?"

"'I bump my head, or am I really seeing double?" Casey added, shifting his eyes back and forth between myself and my counterpart, looking very confused.

"Casey and April, meet our dimensional duplicates," Donny introduced wryly, gesturing towards his own duplicate and Leonardo standing next to him.

"We ain't got time for no meet-n-greet," I declared, still looking around to check on each brother to make sure they were all present and ok: _Mikey, Michelangelo, Donny, Donatello, Raphael, Leonardo, and_— …that was it…only seven of us. We were a leader short…no Leo. I spun around, sure that he was just behind me. There was no one behind me. I spun around again, going numb as the contents of my stomach gelled and froze.

_No. He has to be here. He can't have been the only one broken down by that thing. He couldn't be "nonexistent,"_ as Mikey had put it. But he wasn't here.

"Leo!? Where's Leo?" I shouted, realizing that Leo was not there. Everyone else froze, in the middle of contemplating why they existed they suddenly realized in terror that Leo didn't seem to.

_No, please. Leo answer. Say that you just fell outside of the crater or something!_ My mind begged my brother, rebelling against the awful truth. He was not here. I tore out of the crater, leaping over the edge and frantically searching around the rim, looking out into the intersections, down the streets, into each shadow, nook, and cranny. Leo was not here.

"No. Leo!" I screamed for him, as if calling loud enough for him would somehow drag him back from whatever nonexistent state he was in: "LEOOO!!!" I collapsed to my knees, smashing my fists to the ground and screaming at the sky. "NOOOOO!!!"

I was only half aware of my brothers, Casey, and April searching brokenly around me, calling out for Leo as well, slowly coming to the same conclusion that I did. _Somehow Leo had found a way to sacrifice himself for us. Somehow he had gotten us out of there, but must have been unable to get out himself. Somehow he hadn't made it. He was gone._

I became aware that I was sobbing the moment that Mikey and Donny collapsed to their knees beside me, also weeping, wrapping their arms around me and trying to draw comfort in the embrace as we cried together. There was no comfort for me, only a relief that they were not gone too, that I was not completely alone.

Our counterparts stood in horrified, awkward silence a little away from us, moving as if to comfort us, but clearly unsure what to do, what could possibly help, drawing closer together in the sudden horror of loosing a brother.

_Leo…no…you can't be gone. Please! _My mind rebelled even as my body grieved, shaking and crying out with the pain of the loss. Any brother would have been horrible, unbearable, but Leo…he was the glue, our leader, safe haven, guide, protector and hope, my best friend…my big brother. And now he was gone.

Donatello stepped forward, unsure of intruding on our grief but clearly determined to say his piece, opened his mouth to speak.

"He's not gone, not in that sense. That wouldn't make any sense. We were transported out here by the Technodrome's trans-dimensional portal, so he must have been transported somewhere else. The primary question is where, the secondary being why," he stated, for once seriously, even soberly.

I wanted to yell at him, pick up the stupid half-shell clown, shake him, and say: "don't you understand! This isn't a science project! My brother is dead!!!" but I couldn't, because it felt too good to have this glimmer of hope instead. To choose to believe the Donatello who had been right, after all, about the trans-dimensional portal-stick working. What if Leo wasn't _gone_, just lost? That implied that we could find him.

I was on my feet and in Donatello's face in an instant.

"You're saying he's alive!" I shouted, feeling half-mad from the turmoil going on inside me, desperately hoping that he was right, terrified that he wasn't.

"I believe so," He answered, looking slightly afraid of me. His brothers stepped to either side of him, my counterpart pushing me back a little to protect him. I must look dangerous. I felt pretty dangerous at the moment, but their overprotectiveness brought me back to the reality of the situation: a brother in trouble, and alternate universe brothers telling me he was fine but just needed to be found, implying that he _could_ be found. I had hope. I took a step back, turning to Mikey and Donny.

"Don? What do you think?" I needed his opinion before I could allow myself to get too carried away by this hope. Already I could feel it spreading, fortifying me. Having it torn away again would be unbearable, but better now that I was still unsure than later when I had committed myself to it.

Donny's face was tearstained, like Mikey's, like my own, but he looked seriously for a moment at the ground, contemplating the idea. It was clear he wanted to believe it just as badly as I did, but that he too was unwilling to get caught up in a fruitless pursuit. I could tell what his answer would be before he said it though, seeing his eyes light up, a new resolve in his features.

"I think it makes sense. Or at least, as much sense as any of the rest of this. What I want to know is: how did we survive the Shredder's centrifugal scanning process? We should have been broken down into non-existence. Something didn't go according to his plan. I mean, why would we be transported out but not Leo? Why would just Leo be broken down? That doesn't make sense. The only thing that does make sense is that something transported us all out. Donatello is right: the only real questions are why he wasn't transported out here with us, and where he is now." Donny turned to his counterpart.

"Could he have been transported where the Technodrome was going, the source dimension, to what the Shredder called 'Turtle Prime?'" Donny asked.

"That makes as much sense to me as anything else," Donatello answered, but Mikey cut him off.

"But Donny, you saw Shredder's slideshow, the turtle universe is like, ginormous!" Mikey interjected.

"We have no way of knowing which dimension Turtle Prime is," Don said glumly, catching on to Mikey's point. "We'd just be guessing." We all looked down dejectedly, faces working to control the wave of hopelessness that came over us at this thought. _But Leo_…_we __**have**__ to find him._

"Ooorrr," Donatello blurted, waving the trans-dimensional portal-stick, "we could track your Shredder's exact movements instead, when the Technodrome phases through trans-dimensional barriers, it leaves a trail of particle emissions that, with the right equipment, we can re-calibrate the portal-stick to track!" Donatello said excitedly. I looked at him, at Don, and back at him, and leapt to my feet.

"Well what are we waiting for?! Let's go get the equipment!" I shouted, finally allowing this hope, the thought that Leo wasn't gone, just transported with the Technodrome for some reason—_who cares why, just that he still exists!_—to flood through me and jump start my adrenalin.

I ushered them all into the "Party Wagon," as those clowns called their version of the Battle Shell, and got behind the wheel, tearing out of there as the Dons discussed the equipment they would need and the logistics of the modification and tracking process. I was speeding towards home when the road suddenly disappeared in front of me. I slammed on the breaks and heard everyone smash into the back of my seat and end up in a pile.

"What the shell Raph?!" Mikey complained loudly.

"End of the road bros, literally!" I replied, eyes wide and staring at the stark whiteness of what used to be the New York skyline in front of me. I watched as more and more of the street, and the people on it, in front of me just disappeared. We piled out of the wagon to get a better look, staring in shock and disbelief.

"It's like the whole world's being…erased!" Casey shouted in terror.

"It's the Shredder, it has to be. He's reached Turtle Prime!" Donny explained.

"Then we'd better re-calibrate your tracking device. You said you needed some equipment?" April said shakily, backing up with the rest of them.

"All our gear was destroyed along with the lair…But I think I know a place that just might have the tech we need," Donny replied. "Come on!" And they ran.

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"Purple Dragon Headquarters…Nice call Mr. Wizard," Donatello marveled to Donny. I was thinking just about the same thing…except for the "Mr. Wizard" thing. These guys were too weird.

"I figured the Purple Dragons would still have the goods from that robbery they pulled," Donny replied.

"Yeah, without Hun, the Dragons aren't to swift," I noted, looking around edgily. Just eager to get the stuff we needed and gtfo to go find Leo.

"Step on it Homeslices, this place bugs me out," my counterpart noted. I almost laughed: I felt the same way, except for the odd endearment. _Homeslices? What the shell?_ But then he was suddenly flying across the room and into the wall behind me, groaning in pain, and I didn't feel like laughing anymore.

Hun strode in, looking very much like a spiky, mutated turtle, along with a bunch of Purple Dragons carrying loads of big guns.

"I don't know how you escaped the Shredder…and I. Don't. Care. You're all _mine_ now!" He growled.

"Hun," I growled right back.

"Hun?" Casey and April shouted in disbelief and confusion.

"Hun." I confirmed, then withdrew my sai. My family and friends followed my lead, drawing their own weapons and settling into a defensive crouch. Hun looked…mad.

"Do you know the thing I hate most in all the world?" He growled, showing his teeth. "Turtles!" And then galloped towards us, leaping to slam his clawed fists where April, Casey, and I had all been crouching. We scattered, Casey shoving April aside, and the fight began.

Two goons leveled their guns at me, getting a shot off each, but I leap past the laser bolts and kicked one square in the chest with both feet, spring boarding off of him before he even hit the ground to down the other with a roundhouse kick, taking two steps back to flip a third goon behind me over. His friend came out of nowhere and grabbed me from behind, threatening to dislocate my arms, choking me, and seemingly trying to break my neck all at the same time. My eyes bugged out a little and I couldn't help the groaning cry that escaped my gaping mouth, my body rebelling against the sudden pressure.

Leonardo—not mine—leapt onto the goon's back and snapped his goggled into his eyes. Unorthodox, I'll admit, but it got the job done. He let go of the back of my neck, releasing the pressure on my head and arms so that I was able to slip out of his grasp. I joined Leonardo behind the Dragon as he screamed from the pain in his eyes, clutching his face, and we kicked him in unison, propelling him forward into two others. I almost lost it in a flashback of my Leo and I doing that same tag-team move to Purple Dragons countless times before. _Keep it together. If we make it out of here with this tech we can go get him back and use that move countless times more._

Mikey and my counterpart fought back-to-back, kicking the goon in front of each over. As a third, this one swinging a very Halo-esc battle-axe/mace thing, ran towards them, Mikey cupped his hands in front of him and, with an "Alley-oop!" the clown me jumped up and flipped over the Dragon just as he swung the battle-axe/mace, Mikey ducking to avoid it, Raphael crouching down, and Mikey knocking the Dragon back into him, so that the goon tripped over Raphael, lost his battle axe/mace, and fell to the floor. Donatello joined the fight, using his bo to lever the Dragon up and toss him across the room and into another Dragon, both down for the count.

"Now, I look in the mirror and all I see is you!" Hun screamed in anger as he tore after Michelangelo, taking both fists up and punching down towards Donatello, who just barely avoided what would have been a crushing blow. "And I hate you even more!" He added as he punched Michelangelo across the room.

"Hun, you don't understand," Donny shouted as Hun knocked his counterpart across the room as well, "He—" the wind was knocked out of Donny's lungs before he could finish his sentence by the body of his counterpart crashing into his chest. They both went down in a heap of green, brown, and purple.

"Forget the Shredder! You're gonna pay for what you've done to me!" Hun screamed back at him.

Then my counterpart proved to me, Hun, and the rest of the room that he's completely crazy. Shrugging, his gaze fixed at a point somewhere over our shoulders, and he quipped:

"Some people just can't handle change." (*_Um…you're breaking the fourth wall? lol)_

Hun looked like _he_ was about to go crazy, looking for who Raphael was talking to and seeing no one, he grabbed my counterpart up, hefting him into the air with his claws, and screamed in his face.

"Why do you keep doing that!? Who are you talking to? There's no one there!!!"

Feeling the need to intercede on my counterpart's behalf, I jumped onto Hun's back—shell now—and told him what I really thought of him.

"You idiot, there ain't gonna be anyone _anywhere_ soon. Look!" I shouted, trying to twist his head by force and then giving up and pointing to the rapidly disappearing wall behind Mikey and his counterpart, Mikey kicking his Dragon aside and then working with his counterpart to knock three into the emptiness as we looked their way. The Dragons disappeared, shouting in their confusion and terror for help from Hun, who had stopped shaking my counterpart now and simply growled, looking at the spectacle and then throwing us aside.

"The whole world is going bye-bye. Pretty soon you'll be gone too," Michelangelo added for good measure.

"No…" Hun moaned, eyes wide and terrified as the invisible eraser approached him.

"We need your gear to track him Hun, to stop him," Donny explained. Hun turned as the eraser began to erase _him_, terrified.

"Hurry, take it!" Hun threw Donny the bag of equipment we need to find Leo. "Stop the Shredder before he—ahhhh!" And Hun was gone. We all stood in horrified silence for a moment. Sure he was an enemy, but geeze, what a way to go.

"You heard the man. Let's go stop the Shredder…right after we get Leo back. We'll need Fearless to make a plan." I declared, leading my family out of the rapidly disappearing Dragon Headquarters. We ran.

"Hurry, we need to get back where we started. The exact spot where the Technodrome left our dimension!" Donny screamed back at us from the lead, urging us to keep up.

"Big smoking crater?" my counterpart quipped from beside him, "Hard to miss."

"Unless it disappears before we get there," Michelangelo added in trepidation, running a little faster in response to the thought. Suddenly the air behind us was rent by a scream.

"APRIL!!!" Casey screamed. "Guys, April—she's…she's disappeared!" I halted in my tracks, turning to see April gone and Casey disappearing.

"CASEY!!!" I cried in response, making to run forward to try to pull him out.

_Raph, you can't stop. You have to keep moving! _Leo's voice shouted in my head. I almost froze, but as I processed the words of this auditory hallucination, my mind dredging up the memory of his voice to galvanize me, or whatever it was, I realized that I would be useless to rescue Casey and April, or him, for that matter, if I disappeared too, and tore after my brothers, hating myself for leaving them all the same.

"Just have to re-rout the dimensional phase converter…" Donny muttered, twisting the wrench as his counterpart muttered as well, sweating from the nerves, something about a rabbit going out of a hole, around a tree, and back in a hole… _These guys are so crazy_.

"Step on it dudes! We're facing total and complete wipe-out here!" Mikey shouted, echoing my feelings as the world around us grew smaller and smaller, wondering if this was what Leo experienced and forcing that thought from my mind.

No! He was transported to Turtle Prime. He's fine! We're going to meet up with him RIGHT NOW! Come on Donny!

"…Boost the particle signal gain…" Donny muttered, the world around us shrinking.

"We're too cool to go!" Michelangelo and Raphael shouted, grabbing each other hysterically and holding on tight as the solid space around us got smaller and smaller

"Power up!" Donny shouted triumphantly, the trans-dimensional portal-stick spluttering on for a moment, before sparking and going dead. "But…but!" Donny spluttered in disbelief.

"But?" Leonardo echoed Donny in trepidation.

"But!?" Mikey echoed him.

"But!?!" Mikey's and my counterparts, still clutching each other, shouted in terror.

"It's not working!" Donny shouted to his counterpart as the eraser licked at our heels. Not getting any advice from Donatello, Donny raised the wrench high and imitated his counterpart's solution the first time the trans-dimensional portal-stick was malfunctioning: he hit it. It powered up and the world disappeared around us as we transported out, just in the nick of time.

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So, what did you think? Again, I write and update much more quickly when I get reviews, and I really am interested in getting feedback. :) Next chapter will go back to Leo in the alternate future dimension, and I'll switch back in the one after that. Please review, and have a very happy new year!


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